Resonating with the widespread use of nfv, cloud-native architectures and sdn in 5G networks [1]}, we follow the concept of using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) compute, storage and networking hardware.
While benefiting from low-cost hardware, network functions and edge applications can flexibly and efficiently share the (federated, cf. seccomponent) hardware resources (Req-D), which could be logically and physically distributed across the factory.
This is realized by a distributed cloud interconnected through different wireless and wired technologies, which enables effective balancing of resource loads across the factory. The virtualization view details how the plant-wide management of physical resources is organized and acts as an intermediate view between the components and the data flow views.
Along the lines of ETSI reference architectures for nfv [2]} and mec [3]}, our architecture consists of three entities, which interact with and manage components, virtual functions and edge applications.
As an important distinction from the general nfv view, we consider sensors and actuators deployed across the plant to be virtualized, as well (e. g. as digital twins).
With this, data provided by massive networks of multipurpose wireless sensors can be shared among different industrial applications facilitating an efficient reuse of machines, robots, etc., reducing costs for plant managers.
